I needed a trump card. It had to be something exceptional if I was going to win. We’re talking about some kind of anime transformation. I needed to turn into super mantis blue, draw on the power of the nine-tailed mantis sealed within me, transform into my final, inexplicably small, handsome teenager form, or whatever last second nonsensical power up I had.

The problem was that I didn’t have any of that.

I’ve always been a firm believer in front loading power. Gain the advantage early, then force the enemy to waste their power weapons, or keep them from being able to set up their combos. Needing a trump card meant that you were already in the hole. If you had to resort to some special strategy, why didn’t you use it in the first place?

Of course, it’s easy to say that when you aren’t losing a battle against a guy who fights like a school of piranhas hopped up on energy drinks. Mun-gi was better than me when I was completely healthy, so I was in deep trouble now. He had gone back to circling me and taking the occasional swing at me. With one of my four legs the way it was, I couldn’t keep up with his crazy footwork. Not only that, but the damage to my claws made clashing quite painful. Add in the blurry parts of my eyes and I was definitely at a major disadvantage.

Mun-gi had the stab in his stomach and a number of tiny scratches here and there, but it didn’t seem to hinder him at all. I can’t imagine how much experience he must have to be able to fight freely while wounded. That kind of perseverance and skill isn’t something you are born with; you need to earn through endless combat.

I didn’t have the same know how. There had never been the need or opportunity to learn. I was a massive carnivorous bug monster. I hadn’t been in a fair fight in years, much less a losing one. The last time I’d been outmatched was when I fought those kidnappers, and they had the advantage of numbers and location. I couldn’t drop trees on him. He could dodge easily, and I bet he could chop a tree to pieces before it hit the ground.

My improvised peg leg held up fine, but it wasn’t nearly as agile as a proper foot. The way Mun-gi ran circles around me proved that quite well. He would speed up and slow down at random, and this spike of exoskeleton was clumsy as I turned to match him. I really needed some kind of trump card.

The idea of running crossed my mind. By now the enemy had probably been set back so thoroughly that the invasion had failed. It was a long way to the nearest town, so taking a more casual pace to our attacks wouldn’t hurt. I couldn’t bring myself to risk the other’s lives though. The more I fought with Mun-gi, the more I realized how unstoppable he really was.

If I ran away he would go for any other powerhouse or VIP he could find. I couldn’t do that to my friends and family. Plus, in a weird sort of way, I feel like I owe him a proper fight. It may be my ego speaking, but I wasn’t going to escape and abandon him either. I’d just have to go further.

I’d already pushed my senses and reactions to 100%. It wasn’t enough though. As cliche as it was, I needed 110%. Hearing teachers and bosses say that kind of thing had always annoyed me. It was patronizing and condescending. You can’t give more than 100%, so that was just another way of saying that you aren’t working hard enough. In this case it was true though. I needed to give more than I had.

I couldn’t give more than I had, but I could make my new 100% greater than my former 100%. How’d he put it earlier? ‘Let us ascend even higher.’

I actively tried to absorb Mun-gi’s techniques. It wasn’t like a normal human’s movements could be used with a mantid’s body, but the core concepts were still useful. Shifting and swaying to absorb blows and control the distance wasn’t a new idea to me, but the way Mun-gi did it was so much better and smoother. The way he attacked and parried had an odd flow to it that I could benefit from even with my a shallow imitation.

My attempt at improving would never have worked if it wasn’t for my insane physical abilities, senses, and reaction time. The bargain bin martial arts I was using were literally invented on the spot. On the other hand, I had been able to stand my ground without it, so it did help me quite a bit.

I managed to force yet another stalemate. I was still on the losing side, but I wasn’t going to die anytime soon. I spun to match the vortex of blades around me and fended off each attack. Doing that weird flicking motion Mun-gi did to parry attacks was impossible, but I did move much more efficiently.

One of Mun-gi’s glittering kukris swept towards me. I tried to use the minimum movement to slap it to the side. The second kukri stabbed towards me like a scorpion’s stinger. That one slid away from its course with the claw I managed to raise just barely in time. The previous kukri came back at me and I blocked it as well. I was barely keeping up.

If it was before I would have taken one hit for every six or seven he threw. Now I was a little safer, although I knew that if I slipped even by a millimeter I’d take another cut or stab. Even those small hits were dangerous. My knock off martial arts had definitely bought me time. I wasn’t going to develop anything that could truly be called a martial art yet, but I could get by with my physique and reaction speed for now.

Unfortunately, unless I did spontaneously learn a proper martial art, I wasn’t going to be making any counterattacks either. With my injuries slowing me down I just wasn’t able to do more than keep up. It didn’t help that Mun-gi had been observing me and adjusting to my pace as well. He definitely looked a lot more relaxed than I did as well.

He was even comfortable enough to speak. It wasn’t very good for the ego to have to fend off his attacks while listening to him talk casually.

“This has been the best fight I’ve had in years, you know!”

He kept circling about as he talked. The dust kicked up by our feet mixed with the thin remains of the insecticide smoke. The dusty smoke twisting around our legs didn’t obscure anything, but it made the scene look quite artistic. I felt like a dancer in a play. Despite how amazing fighting like this was I couldn’t help but resent how pretty things were. This was a real fight, did it have to look so frou-frou?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I have fought all sorts; beasts, men, and men that fought like beasts. But this is the first time for me to fight a beast that fought like a man!”

His words made me pause for a brief second, putting me in a lot of danger. When he said that I nearly died. I barely felt the cut I took in that moment of carelessness though, his words were just too distracting. He was right. I fought like a human, not a praying mantis.

It was inevitable. Even if I had adjusted to my new body years ago, my mind was still the same human mind I'd always had. I just didn’t think like an insect. That wasn’t a disadvantage at all; bugs aren't intelligent. Being able to come up with schemes and reason my way through problems had saved my life many times.

That wasn’t to say that bugs were stupid, they were just unintelligent. That sounds like the same thing but there’s a big difference between the two. Unintelligent insects act solely according to their instincts. They didn’t try to use their brains to reason out what they should do. Insects aren’t stupid because thinking isn’t really a factor in their behavior processes.

I’d never used my instincts, since it hadn’t really been necessary. I was just too overpowered. Even moving inefficiently was enough to let me run rampant throughout the forest. It was a bit counterintuitive, but if I wanted to wring out any more power I needed to rely on my instincts and reflexes.

I guess I had a trump card after all.

A single explosive step nearly freed me from Mun-gi’s deadly vortex. He didn’t follow me too closely as I tried to gain distance with my backward leaps. I was obviously up to something and he wasn’t going to risk falling for a trap. He seemed to know I wasn’t going to run, so there was no need for him to hurry.

I pulled my claws up to my chest. Following my instincts after so long was hard, but a tiny part would always survive in the primal parts of my brain. Reflexes and instincts built into my flesh started to awaken. It was weird, like settling into a routine. My exoskeleton warped and shrunk as it returned to its normal green. Black, slimy looking horns and spines receded to reveal glossy green exoskeleton. The alien ridges smoothed themselves over as the organ and bone imitations disappeared, leaving behind my true appearance.

The way my shapeshifting undid itself felt unavoidable. I didn’t want to lose my grip on this feeling because I was to busy trying to look scary. It was like relaxing a muscle I didn't know was clenched. There wasn’t much of an audience left anyway, so it wouldn’t matter. The only bit I nearly tried to keep was my claws. I always liked cutting edges over the normal, interlocking spikes.

Mun-gi had this almost obnoxious grin on his face. He knew I was pulling out some sort of trump card and he couldn’t be happier. There was a hint of challenge in his dark eyes that would come off as arrogant on anyone else. He was slowly jogging towards me before he leaned into a rapid dash.

I felt myself focus on his approaching silhouette. My body relaxed like I was sinking into a hot tub. Every bit of tension disappeared and time seemed to warp. It still felt counterintuitive, but there was a confidence in my actions that seemed to come from something carved within my DNA.

Mun-gi had his kukris up in that horn-like pose again. He had this momentum as he charged that made him seem bigger than he really was. It was like a bull the size of a truck sprinting forward, ready to impale you on its horns. With the way my claws were loosely folded up, it seemed that if I didn’t make a stance he’d carve me open before I could strike back. I decided to trust my instincts though.

Time seemed to flow differently. It didn’t slow down, at least not the I pictured something like that would feel. Instead everything felt more distinct, like my senses were more clearly defined. I didn’t have more time to think, but everything was more clear.

There wasn’t that much distance between Mun-gi and I, and he covered it in a fraction of a second. My senses felt strange, like the colors were oversaturated and the sounds were louder. Mun-gi’s kukris shone like mirrors under the sun, and his footsteps sounded strangely sharp.

At the last moment Mun-gi somehow accelerated even further. He reached an faster speed than either of us had seen since the start of the fight. The air screamed as his blades cut the wind open. I knew I was going to die. Then he crossed some sort of boundary, and my reflexes triggered, and my body exploded into motion.

Even with my enhanced senses and the odd state of my mind I didn’t see what happened. One moment I was prepared to attack him and the next I had two massive slashes across my body. I was missing an arm just below the shoulder and the cuts on my torso nearly chopped me in half.

Back when I was human I had been in a car crash once. It hadn’t been a bad one but it stuck with me. This was like that in a lot of ways. When I’d been in the car crash I remember that I hadn’t actually experienced the crash itself. One second I was driving, the next I was dazed and confused. This situation wasn’t exactly like that, but the feeling of abrupt transition reminded me of it.

Before anything else, I shapeshifted my wounds closed. My missing arm aside, the two cuts on my torso were starting to hurt more and more. I might even pass out once I came down off this adrenaline high. They might be enough to make me bleed out which would make unconsciousness lethal.

Forcing those wide wounds closed hurt like mad. My exoskeleton creaked as it pulled together and sealed shut. My joints spasmed a bit before the pain faded enough for me to think properly again. My arm was shot, and I wasn’t going to be fighting anymore, but at least I could stand up.

When Mun-gi and I had clashed we had hit each other simultaneously. That moment was less than a blur. You could have missed it by blinking. Then it was just agony. It looks like Mun-gi got it just as bad as me though.

He had slipped past me when he’d attacked earlier. I didn’t even see how he did it, but evidently I had gotten a piece of him as he passed by. He was still standing, but from all the blood it was obvious that he wasn’t going to be doing any more fighting either.

At least, that’s what I had thought at first.

“Th-that… -Ghk!”

Mun-gi coughed as we turned to face each other once again. My missing arm was sticking out of his back, the tip of my claw buried in his flesh. It hung awkwardly, weighing him down. I hadn’t grabbed on with my other arm in time, but the parallel lines of scrapes on his chest and back suggested that he’d slipped out at the last second. His kukris hung loosely in his hands, but the fire in his eyes hadn’t disappeared yet.

His smile was surprisingly blood free. Years of television had taught me that he should be vomiting blood, but apparently TV lied to me. Color me surprised. It didn’t matter though, that flawless but insane smile was unnerving in its own way. He shifted forwards, winced then stopped.

“I didn’t think you could move that fast. ...I didn’t think I could move that fast.”

I felt a laugh bubble up. Everything hurt, but somehow we were both still smiling.

“No pain, no gain I guess.”

He snorted at that, giving me an odd look.

“Yes, I suppose that’s a good way of putting it.”

We stood there silently, the sound of the forest and far off battle acting to underline the silence rather than end it. Neither of us was willing to move, everything just hurt too much.

“...”

“...”

After a bit Mun-gi let out a pained chuckle.

“I suppose the fight isn’t over yet, but continuing after that exchange feels anticlimactic. I give up.”

“That’s… that isn’t really the reason I’d expect you to give for stopping this fight.”

His grin twisted a bit as he looked at me.

“Even if I love fighting, I’m not suicidal. I’ve failed my mission, so continuing would simply be throwing my life away. This seems a good time to end the fight. I have lost, so I may as well throw in the towel here.”

The way he said that was strangely obnoxious. It didn’t feel much like he was admitting a loss. I’d been fighting so desperately for my life and he was just calling it off. Even so, as much as I wanted to get annoyed or angry, I just felt relief.

“Good enough for me.”

We both collapsed like marionettes with our strings cut. My vision faded as I lost consciousness. Before I blacked out, I heard his voice one last time.

“That was fun though, shame it had to end.”